1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for lifting a trash container or a can to a dump position over a trash receiving vehicle. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus which is mounted preferably on the side of a trash receiving vehicle for lifting the trash container from a standard position to an inverted position over the top of the vehicle for dumping the contents of the trash container into a receiving chamber on the vehicle.
2. Related Patents
This invention uses the mechanism taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,807 which is incorporated herein by reference.
3. Background of Trash Hauling
The pressing need to increase the efficiency of trash collection and to reduce the costs incurred in the trash collecting process has brought about increased mechanization of trash collection. To provide a mechanism for efficiently emptying trash containers into a collection vehicle, the prior art has resorted to innumerable mechanical arrangements. These disclosed apparatus provide for trash containers or cans to be lifted from the ground and dumped into a trash collecting vehicle with the lifting mechanisms raising the trash containers over the side, front or back of the vehicle through the use of tracks, rails, articulating arms, conveyer systems and the like. The prior apparata incorporate various degrees of complexities. It is well known in the trash collecting industry that such mechanisms are subject to extremely adverse operating conditions, giving rise to frequent breakdowns and resulting decreases in operating efficiency.
The efficiency of curbside pickup of trash could be greatly enhanced by standardization of the trash containers used in communities served by the same collectors. This standardization in turn requires a pick-up mechanism, operable from the cab of a trash collecting vehicle, capable of inter-connecting with the trash container, dumping the trash out of the container and into the vehicle and releasing the container at its original position.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved trash can grabber for a trash collection apparatus for mounting on a trash collecting vehicle to grasp and lift a trash can, to dump the contents into the top of a vehicle and to return the can to it's original position.